Bruns, A., Waltert, M., & Khorozyan, I. (2020). The effectiveness of livestock protection measures against wolves (Canis lupus) and implications for their co-existence with humans. Global Ecology and Conservation, 21, e00868.
Abstract: Wolves (Canis lupus) can kill domestic livestock resulting in intense conflicts with humans. Damage to livestock should be reduced to facilitate human-wolf coexistence and ensure positive outcomes of conservation efforts. Current knowledge on the effectiveness of livestock protection measures from wolves is limited and scattered in the literature. In this study, we compiled a dataset of 30 cases describing the application of 11 measures of protecting cattle and smaller livestock against wolves, estimated their effectiveness as a relative risk of damage, and identified the best measures for damage reduction. We found that: (1) lethal control and translocation were less effective than other measures, (2) deterrents, especially fladry which is a fence with ropes marked by hanging colored flags that sway in the wind and provide a visual warning signal, were more effective than guarding dogs; (3) deterrents, fencing, calving control and herding were very effective, but the last two measures included only one case each; and (4) protection of cattle was more effective than that of small stock (sheep and goats, or sheep only) and mixed cattle and small stock. In all of these cases, the relative risk of damage was reduced by 50-100%. Considering Germany as an example of a country with a recovering wolf population and escalating human-wolf conflicts, we suggest electric fences and electrified fladry as the most promising measures, which under suitable conditions can be accompanied by well-trained livestock guarding dogs, and the temporary use of deterrents during critical periods such as calving and lambing seasons. Further research in this field is of paramount importance to efficiently mitigate human-wolf conflicts.
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Lusseau, D., & Conradt, L. (2009). The emergence of unshared consensus decisions in bottlenose dolphins. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 63(7), 1067–1077.
Abstract: Abstract Unshared consensus decision-making processes, in which one or a small number of individuals make the decision for the rest of a group, are rarely documented. However, this mechanism can be beneficial for all group members when one individual has greater knowledge about the benefits of the decision than other group members. Such decisions are reached during certain activity shifts within the population of bottlenose dolphins residing in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand. Behavioral signals are performed by one individual and seem to precipitate shifts in the behavior of the entire group: males perform side flops and initiate traveling bouts while females perform upside-down lobtails and terminate traveling bouts. However, these signals are not observed at all activity shifts. We find that, while side flops were performed by males that have greater knowledge than other male group members, this was not the case for females performing upside-down lobtails. The reason for this could have been that a generally high knowledge about the optimal timing of travel terminations rendered it less important which individual female made the decision.
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Sterck, E., Watts, D., & van Schaik, C. (1997). The evolution of female social relationships in nonhuman primates. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 41(5), 291–309.
Abstract: Considerable interspeci®c variation in female social relationships occurs in gregarious primates, particularly with regard to agonism and cooperation between females and to the quality of female relationships with males. This variation exists alongside variation in female philopatry and dispersal. Socioecological theories have tried to explain variation in female-female social relationships from an evolutionary perspective focused on ecological factors, notably predation and food distribution. According to the current ``ecological model'', predation risk forces females of most diurnal primate species to live in groups; the strength of the contest component of competition for resources within and between groups then largely determines social relationships between females. Social elationships among gregarious females are here characterized as DispersalEgalitarian, Resident-Nepotistic, Resident-Nepotistic-Tolerant, or Resident-Egalitarian. This ecological model has successfully explained i€erences in the occurrence of formal submission signals, decided dominance relation ships, coalitions and female philopatry. Group size and female rank generally a€ect female reproduction success as the model predicts, and studies of closely related species in di€erent ecological circumstances underscore the importance of the model. Some cases, however, can only be explained when we extend the model to incorporate the e€ects of infanticide risk and habitat saturation. We review evidence in support of the ecological model and test the power of alternative models that invoke between-group competition, forced female philopatry, demographic female recruitment, male interventions into female aggression, and male harassment.
Not one of these models can replace the ecological model, which already encompasses the between-group competition. Currently the best model, which explains
several phenomena that the ecological model does not, is a ``socioecological model'' based on the combined importance of ecological factors, habitat saturation and infanticide avoidance. We note some points of similarity and divergence with other mammalian taxa; these remain to be explored in detail.
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Barton, R. (2002). The evolutionary ecolgy of the primate brain. In P. C. Lee (Ed.), Comparative Primate Socioecology (pp. 167–204). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Purvis, A. (2006). The h index: playing the numbers game. Trends. Ecol. Evol, 21(8), 422.
Abstract: Article Outline
References
The ‘h index’ was developed recently as a measure of research performance [1]: a researcher's h is the number of his or her papers that have been cited at least h times. In their thoughtful critique of the index, Kelly and Jennions [2] point out many ways in which h is no better than ‘traditional’ bibliometrics, such as total citation counts. However, there is one way in which, for researchers, it could be very much better, especially if (as Hirsch suggests [1]) it is to inform hiring and promotion decisions. The skewed nature of the distribution of citations among publications means that most researchers have several papers that nearly but not quite count. Consequently, h can be distorted much more easily than can total citation count just by finding a subtle way to cite one's own papers that are ‘bubbling under’. Incidentally, bats show broadly the same life-history allometries as other mammalian clades [3].
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Saleh, N., & Chittka, L. (2006). The importance of experience in the interpretation of conspecific chemical signals. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 61(2), 215–220.
Abstract: Abstract Foraging bumblebees scent mark flowers with hydrocarbon secretions. Several studies have found these scent marks act as a repellent to bee foragers. This was thought to minimize the risk of visiting recently depleted flowers. Some studies, however, have found a reverse, attractive effect of scent marks left on flowers. Do bees mark flowers with different scents, or could the same scent be interpreted differently depending on the bees? previous experience with reward levels in flowers? We use a simple experimental design to investigate if the scent marks can become attractive when bees forage on artificial flowers that remain rewarding upon the bees? return after having depleted them. We contrast this with bees trained in the more natural scenario where revisits to recently emptied flowers are unrewarding. The bees association between scent mark and reward value was tested with flowers scent marked from the same source. We find that the bees experience with the level of reward determines how the scent mark is interpreted: the same scent can act as both an attractant and a repellent. How experience and learning influence the interpretation of the meaning of chemical signals deposited by animals for communication has rarely been investigated.
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Wasser, S. K., Keim, J. L., Taper, M. L., & Lele, S. R. (2011). The influences of wolf predation, habitat loss, and human activity on caribou and moose in the Alberta oil sands. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, .
Abstract: Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) and moose (Alces alces) populations in the Alberta oil sands region of western Canada are influenced by wolf (Canis lupus) predation, habitat degradation and loss, and anthropogenic activities. Trained domestic dogs were used to locate scat from caribou, moose, and wolves during winter surges in petroleum development. Evidence obtained from collected scat was then used to estimate resource selection, measure physiological stress, and provide individual genetic identification for precise mark–recapture abundance estimates of caribou, moose, and wolves. Strong impacts of human activity were indicated by changes in resource selection and in stress and nutrition hormone levels as human-use measures were added to base resource selection models (including ecological variables, provincial highways, and pre-existing linear features with no human activity) for caribou. Wolf predation and resource selection so heavily targeted deer (Odocoileus virginiana or O hemionus) that wolves appeared drawn away from prime caribou habitat. None of the three examined species showed a significant population change over 4 years. However, caribou population estimates were more than double those of previous approximations for this area. Our findings suggest that modifying landscape-level human-use patterns may be more effective at managing this ecosystem than intentional removal of wolves.
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Kahurananga, J., & Silkiluwasha, F. (1997). The migration of zebra and wildebeest between Tarangire National Park and Simanjiro Plains, northern Tanzania, in 1972 and recent trends. Afr J Ecol, 35(3), 179–185.
Abstract: In 1972, four aerial censuses were carried out to assess the annual migration of zebra and wildebeest between Tarangire National Park and Simanjiro Plains. About 6000 zebra and 10,000 wildebeest were in the Plains in the middle of the rainy season, in April. During the dry season in August the animals were concentrated in the Park. The migration from the Park to the Plains started at beginning of the rains, in November/December. Recent censuses by Tanzania Wildlife Conservation Monitoring (TWCM, 1991, 1995) indicate that an estimated 23,000 zebra and 11,000 wildebeest migrate into the Park from Simanjiro and other wet season areas. Encroaching cultivation is a threat to the migration corridors and sustainability of the ecosystem . Providing benefits from wildlife to communities around the park would safeguard the future of the wildlife.
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Conley W,. (1979). The potential for increase in horse and ass populations: A theoretical analysis. Symp Ecol and Behav of wild and feral Equids, Laramie, , 221–234.
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Dingemanse, N. J., & de Goede, P. (2004). The relation between dominance and exploratory behavior is context-dependent in wild great tits. Behav. Ecol., 15(6), 1023–1030.
Abstract: Individual differences in personality affect behavior in novel or challenging situations. Personality traits may be subject to selection because they affect the ability to dominate others. We investigated whether dominance rank at feeding tables in winter correlated with a heritable personality trait (as measured by exploratory behavior in a novel environment) in a natural population of great tits, Parus major. We provided clumped resources at feeding tables and calculated linear dominance hierarchies on the basis of observations between dyads of color-ringed individuals, and we used an experimental procedure to measure individual exploratory behavior of these birds. We show that fast-exploring territorial males had higher dominance ranks than did slow-exploring territorial males in two out of three samples, and that dominance related negatively to the distance between the site of observation and the territory. In contrast, fast-exploring nonterritorial juveniles had lower dominance ranks than did slow-exploring nonterritorial juveniles, implying that the relation between dominance and personality is context-dependent in the wild. We discuss how these patterns in dominance can explain earlier reported effects of avian personality on natal dispersal and fitness.
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